It's getting exciting...

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS… OH BECKY

Last week as a little exciting as we had our third cyclone warning of the season and the second since we have been here. Though technically it never actually deepened into a cyclone, but stayed a Strong Tropical Depression. It was named Becky and it was the closet of the three so far.

The marina has a very structured alert system, beginning with a green flag for the “pre-alert” and red for the final stages when everything needs to be ready. What that entails is moving the boats away from the pontoon and setting up the hurricane lines which run off the stern and are attached to a chain laid on the bottom of the water.

The hurricane lines were set at the technical beginning of the cyclone season. Although this year has been unusual as the first cyclone occurred in October and the season should begin in December. If you want to see more about Becky and other cyclones in the Southwestern Pacific and Southeastern Indian Ocean check out this site:
http://www.australiasevereweather.com/cyclones/

I went a little over the top and decided to take everything off the deck. This means: water jugs, fuel jugs, unnecessary lines, the sails, the canvas, and the cushions. This has made for a very cramped boat. I did this 36 to 40 hours before we would have been hit by at that time 80 knots of wind. Nothing too bad, but certainly more than we have ever encountered with the boat. Though JP being from Reunion has experienced more than twice that. Taking everything off the deck was a bit premature, but my thinking was that is often begins to rain before a storm and then it would meaning taking everything inside when it was wet (not something I was looking forward to), so I took some preemptive measures. It hasn’t been all for naught as I discovered that the deck was in dire need to a really good scrubbing, something which can not be done thoroughly with everything we normally keep on it. Now we have a cleaner boat on the outside, but a very cramped cabin. Tomorrow I will remedy this putting the main and the Mizzen back. The Genoa really is a two person job, so I will have to wait for JP on that one.